"Linux vendor Canonical said it has 'no interest' in Linux kernel development. Two weeks ago a Linux Foundation report showed that since version 2.6.32, Microsoft had committed more code to the Linux kernel than Canonical. Since then, Canonical has faced claims from rivals that it does not contribute to Linux as much as it should given its popularity. Recently Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth told The Inquirer that his company has no interest in contributing to the Linux kernel." Why is this such a bad thing? You can contribute more to open source than code alone. Like, I don't know, users?

No-one outside of Canonical actually knows if they're profitable or not, as it's a private company and doesn't have to report financials. I don't believe anyone there has said that they're profitable yet; but it's been a while since the last time anyone said definitely that they weren't. So right now we just don't know whether they are.